"I believe this place is a lot more special than it seems, just like that tree outside. Nothing is ever to be taken at face value. If I had a proper mother in either of my lifetimes, then I believe she would say the same thing." A melancholic aura began to permeate around Azmond as he thought about the family that he never had.
But before that emotion could fester inside his heart, He shook his head a little to regain focus before continuing toward the small hut.
A stalwart expression was the only thing left on Azmond's face. He preferred not to think of things that he would never have and instead focus his attention on what he could have.
Deep down in Azmond's psyche, there was a part of him that would always yearn for a family. A part that would always beg for the impossible—he tried to fill that void inside him with a constant will to train. Azmond was the same way in his last life and in this one.
He always needed no one but himself and his constant pursuit of power.
Or, at least, that was what he thought until he met a certain someone. A ditsy girl with long, silly blue hair, a beautiful silhouette that Azmond had yet to forget even after all this time.
She may not have been in his life for long, but she was still a major turning point in Azmond's future.
If he hadn't met her when he did, then he might have never met His Little Ice Bunny after receiving directions for the Goblin Kingdom's location.
A Goblin Kingdom that Azmond still had some unfinished business to attend to. But that was for another time.
......
Aqua was the catalyst that set Azmond's change in motion; she was the reason he began to change. She was the reason that he met Crystalline, and he would be forever grateful to Aqua for that.
Azmond longed to have familiar love for as long as he could remember. He would never show that part of him to any other soul, but that didn't mean it wasn't there.
He was a man who showed very few emotions when he wasn't fooling around with Crystalline. And that quirk of hia would probably never change.
Azmond was, however, very content with that side of him. A facade of indifference was the only thing capable of allowing him to survive. Whether in this new world or his old one, they were both unforgiving places.
Places where the strong and powerful prey on the weak and defenseless every single day.
Azmond had to be indifferent to all the cruelties that happened around him if he wished to get stronger in this world.
If he was strong enough to assist somebody in need and it didn't conflict with his goals, Then, Azmond wouldn't mind giving a hand, but he would never go out of his way to play the hero and scour the lands looking for trouble.
In a world like Asterion with a population that most likely bordered on the trillions, if not quadrillions, A world where millions of people die every day due to all sorts of injustices.
Even if Azmond did decide to play the hero that saved the weak, it would make not an ounce of a difference.
Azmond knew that; everyone in this world knew that. This was a world where you had to be strong if you wanted to survive. A fact that stands true through all rungs of society, whether you were a peasant or a mighty king living atop a castle made of gold. Your life would always have a chance of perishing at any given moment.
There will always be someone more powerful, and that was the case in this world and on Earth. Azmond's personality was the same back on earth as it was now because nothing had really changed for him.
He needed to do everything he could just to get by in both worlds.
........
Azmond snapped out of his reverie as he neared the tiny hut with small steps.
The steps Azmond took seemed to get louder the closer he got to the small hut. It was a very weird occurrence that he couldn't figure out the cause of.
"This place is attracting more and more of my interest the more time I spend here." A small, imperceptible smile emerged on Azmond's face as he neared the door to the small thatch hut.
He closed in on the door before beginning to lightly knock on it.
Wam! Wam!
Or, at least, that was what he tried to do, but he unfortunately wasn't that adept at controlling his current strength.
The result of that ineptitude was a strong release of power from Azmond's hand with every hit.
"Oops..."
However, the door was completely unscathed, despite the tremendous amount of force he was unintentionally applying.
"I should work on getting my physical strength under control once I get out of this place," he began, speaking with a wry smile as he retracted his hand. "Banging on the door is clearly not having any effect, but the weirder part of this situation is the durability of this hut."
"It looks so weak and fragile, and yet strikes that could wipe out entire mountain ranges are doing nothing... Not even a piece of the hut shook from the force of my hits." Azmond spoke with a puzzled tone as he circled around the hut, trying to find something out of the ordinary.
He examined the small structure for quite a bit but found nothing worthy of notice. "The special quality of this shack must originate from the inside of the hut." Azmond concluded after a few moments of thinking to himself.
Azmond hesitated on whether or not he should immediately barge into the small hut before a resolute expression formed on his face. "No time like the present." A voice of indifference sounded out as he approached the entrance to the hut once again.